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URMC prepares new laboratory in Henrietta

The University of Rochester Medical Center is opening a new laboratory in Henrietta to make room for new equipment and a growing staff.
University of Rochester Medical Center
The University of Rochester Medical Center is opening a new laboratory in Henrietta to make room for new equipment and a growing staff.

The University of Rochester Medical Center has built a new laboratory that updates some facilities that have been in use since before the Great Depression.

The new pathology laboratory on Bailey Road in West Henrietta will accommodate larger machinery and allow staff who have previously been spread out across URMC’s campus to work together in one place.

“The pathology laboratories kind of grew piecemeal from 1925 or ‘26, when Strong opened, and were put in a hodgepodge of places all over the entire hospital,” said Bruce Smoller, the head of the URMC pathology department.

A larger, centralized facility will help staff make more diagnoses, faster, Smoller said.

“It’s a huge leap,” he said. “In all fairness, most of the laboratories, one way or another, have been renovated since the 1920s, but certainly none of them look or feel anything like this very modern, sleek laboratory space.”

Urgent tests will still be done on-site at Strong or other URMC clinics, but Smoller says about 500 staff will move to the new facility when it officially opens June 24.

“There had been some resistance, at first. You know, ‘this is good enough,’ or ‘we’re doing just fine,’ that kind of thing,” said Smoller. “Now, we’re ready. It really is exciting.”

 

Brett was the health reporter and a producer at WXXI News. He has a master’s degree from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.